Employees: The #1 Social Business Asset

When attempting to accelerate innovation, productivity, and communications in social business efforts, firms need to put their employees first.

The social employee represents the company and amplifies, advocates for and influences the brand voice in all its social profiles. Leveraging this asset and focusing on social business adoption across the enterprise is a strategic differentiator that starts with the employee’s individual brand.

The consumerization of social media was triggered by the founding of social engagement platforms like LinkedIn (2002), Facebook (2006), and Twitter (2008). Communities, blogs and other online platforms allow an individual to grow an audience and advocate and influence outcomes like never before. What were once considered private experiences are now widely sharable. However, as openness and transparency have become the norm, the same cannot be said of the business context for the social employee.

Social media skills enhance the employee experience and add efficiency to the brand message as the sum of the parts advocate and influence for the whole – make the investment in social media training and individual brand building for your employees.

Employees will experience social business and the collaboration in different ways – make transparency, employee empowerment and authenticity core traits of your social business program and evolution to ensure success.

Leadership by example and communication by the leadership team and social media advocates will go a long way toward uniting and fostering engagement with the corporate employee team.